What Amp is essentially a Pro Jr with 12" speakers?

[dreamingtele]

I'm not talking about modded Pro Jrs.. but Same exact flavor of a Pro Jr just with 12" speakers?

Also, would a 12" speaker equate into more headroom? volume?

I've played the Pro Jr IV and its just a really good tone machine, simple and light, but packs a good punch with any tele I try it with.. Just love that cleanish tone..

I do play in church, but if I bring the Pro Jr, it will be mic'ed.. so nothing wrong with getting more volume when I bring it, but I'm more concerned on the headroom..

I'll be using overdrive pedals to push it and wont be playing it cranked even if I want to.

If you guys have a Pro Jr, did you have problems with the headroom and volume?

 

[Jsnwhite619]

This recent thread discusses a lot of about that. http://www.tdpri.com/threads/blues-jr-pro-jr-project.915200/ The bigger cab helps most of all, whether using a 10" or 12" speaker in the end. Real pine in a 16x20 Tweed Deluxe sized cab takes a Pro Jr to a whole new level. Louder, richer tone - I hate to say more "bandwidth", but better bass and more air in the treble is present in the bigger cabs than those little MDF boxes. Deeper cabs give more bass presence as well.

But, if you don't need more volume, and you plan on using OD pedals with a mic, you can get a lot of miles out of the stock setup and be done with it. For speakers I've tried, a Warehouse Veteran 10 brings volume & headroom down and sounds great for more amp/speaker breakup. A Ragin Cajun makes you think you added a few watts and is loud as can be, but also sounds great. Mine came with the brown & gold Eminence about 10 years ago, and I liked it until I blew it out.

I gigged mine for several years with a Blues Driver and never turned it past 4-5 on the volume dial, usually 3-4 range. It will be plenty loud for church playing unless they've radically changed something in the past 10 years since mine was built. But, if you love the clean tone, single coils get more mileage but humbuckers OD pretty quick. A 12ay7 in V1 will get you a lot more room on the dial for cleans.

Sum it up, great amps for the size & money. Bigger cabs do work wonders, but definitely not necessary to enjoy them.

 

[dreamingtele]

This recent thread discusses a lot of about that. http://www.tdpri.com/threads/blues-jr-pro-jr-project.915200/ The bigger cab helps most of all, whether using a 10" or 12" speaker in the end. Real pine in a 16x20 Tweed Deluxe sized cab takes a Pro Jr to a whole new level. Louder, richer tone - I hate to say more "bandwidth", but better bass and more air in the treble is present in the bigger cabs than those little MDF boxes. Deeper cabs give more bass presence as well.

But, if you don't need more volume, and you plan on using OD pedals with a mic, you can get a lot of miles out of the stock setup and be done with it. For speakers I've tried, a Warehouse Veteran 10 brings volume & headroom down and sounds great for more amp/speaker breakup. A Ragin Cajun makes you think you added a few watts and is loud as can be, but also sounds great. Mine came with the brown & gold Eminence about 10 years ago, and I liked it until I blew it out.

I gigged mine for several years with a Blues Driver and never turned it past 4-5 on the volume dial, usually 3-4 range. It will be plenty loud for church playing unless they've radically changed something in the past 10 years since mine was built. But, if you love the clean tone, single coils get more mileage but humbuckers OD pretty quick. A 12ay7 in V1 will get you a lot more room on the dial for cleans.

Sum it up, great amps for the size & money. Bigger cabs do work wonders, but definitely not necessary to enjoy them.

Thank you for this!

I use mainly Tele’s. And a Grestsch with filters. I dont own anymore guitars with HB’s or higher output pickups, with the exception of a planned purchase of a 1966 epiphone century, p90 neck but I doubt i will push it past crank stage as we are mic’ed.

Im also contemplating on getting someone custom hand build one with a bigger enclosure and 12”. But then again, paying that large money is better for a grail amp clone than a Pjr.

I dont really play loud and i dont play to stand out or drown out everybody,

 

[maxvintage]

The Pro Jr. is a very cool and versatile amp even stock. I've often thought somebody could make money selling a hardwired version of the Pro. Jr. circuit, tweaked to remove some of the deficiencies of the design, which include a tendency to be noisy and develop rattles. Mount the tubes in the chassis, turret board construction, etc. But I love the stock pro. jr. despite its faults


I made a pine cab for a 10 inch speaker, and then for a 12. I use it with a weber alnico 12 to play jazz. The 12 inch speaker does get you more clean volume. A major advantage is weight--the amp in a 12 inch pine cab with speaker weighs less than the stock amp. As far as sound--it seemed a little intangible to me. I don't typically play at really loud volumes, so maybe at high volumes I'd notice the pine cab more. But with a light cab the whole grab and go aspect of the pro jr. is really made even better. The stock cab is I think MDF with a honkin' thick particle board baffle. I feel better not lugging that around.

This is the ten inch cab I made: the 12 is identical except two inches bigger all around

IMG_2089

• maxvintage
• Jan 27, 2018

IMG_2093

• maxvintage
• Jan 27, 2018

Raw ply back with cutout for NFB switch

You can buy 12 inch cabs for the Pro jr. pretty readily.

 

[Piotr]

I suggest using an extension cabinet. The only thing you'd need to do is to replace the output transformer. Have a look here.:
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/24112-ask-amp-man-modding-a-pro-junior-for-an-extension-cab

 

[fasteddie42]

A pro junior with a 12"?

 

[Dennyf]

A pro junior with a 12"?

It’s going around. That’s mine on the left.

 

[dreamingtele]

The Pro Jr. is a very cool and versatile amp even stock. I've often thought somebody could make money selling a hardwired version of the Pro. Jr. circuit, tweaked to remove some of the deficiencies of the design, which include a tendency to be noisy and develop rattles. Mount the tubes in the chassis, turret board construction, etc. But I love the stock pro. jr. despite its faults


I made a pine cab for a 10 inch speaker, and then for a 12. I use it with a weber alnico 12 to play jazz. The 12 inch speaker does get you more clean volume. A major advantage is weight--the amp in a 12 inch pine cab with speaker weighs less than the stock amp. As far as sound--it seemed a little intangible to me. I don't typically play at really loud volumes, so maybe at high volumes I'd notice the pine cab more. But with a light cab the whole grab and go aspect of the pro jr. is really made even better. The stock cab is I think MDF with a honkin' thick particle board baffle. I feel better not lugging that around.

This is the ten inch cab I made: the 12 is identical except two inches bigger all around

IMG_2089

• maxvintage
• Jan 27, 2018

IMG_2093

• maxvintage
• Jan 27, 2018

Raw ply back with cutout for NFB switch

You can buy 12 inch cabs for the Pro jr. pretty readily.

Thanks for this! I really would want a 12" for the Pro Jr. I thought maybe theres another amp that is essentially a Pro Jr with a 12" speaker ready to buy..

 

[dreamingtele]

I suggest using an extension cabinet. The only thing you'd need to do is to replace the output transformer. Have a look here.:
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/24112-ask-amp-man-modding-a-pro-junior-for-an-extension-cab

If im gonna need to lug around the extra extension cab, it might prove to be ineffective as I need to be able to carry my guitar on one hand, amp on the other and pedalboard in my backpack.

 

[dreamingtele]

It’s going around. That’s mine on the left.

View attachment 577386

Hows the weight?

 

[schmee]

Well, the Pro Jr is basically very much like many 2 x EL84 amps if you ask me. The ultimate of those is a Z Carmen Ghia to my ears.
Regarding speakers, I don't find size is the determining factor, but more type is. For instance a Weber 10F150 sounds very close to a Weber 12F150. Big bold bottom, adequate highs and a warm breakup and loud.
But Weber builds them nearly the same other than overall size . (ie: the voice coil and cone etc are the same, just less paper) Not a lot of speaker makers do that. Often, if they go from 12 to 10", they reduce voice coil size, maybe magnet size, and other things.

 

[Dennyf]

Hows the weight?

The cabinet, being plywood, is actually lighter than the original, but the speaker I chose (Eminence "The Wizard") has a biggish magnet. It feels about the same to me.

 

[Jsnwhite619]

My 16x20x10 pine cabs come out to around 15 pounds usually with baffle and panels, but before chassis and speaker.

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[KC]

two directions came to mind: (a) drop a G10 Greenback into the Pro Junior you have. This will likely decrease the overall volume some as it's an inefficient speaker but it does kick up the bottom end nicely. Celestion calls it the 10 that thinks it's a 12 which feels right to me. or (b) buy a Blues Junior, which does have a 12 in it, and is on Craigslist often for about the cost of an extension cabinet. Does it sound exactly like pro jr? Nope, but it's in the family, and a nice workable amp. with an efficient speaker, it can keep up in a surprising range of gig situations, while still sounding decent when dialed back.

 

[jrblue]

The 10" is integral to the Pro Jr sound, so the answer is "none." It is wrongheaded to think of a 10" combo as a deficient 12" combo. I much, much prefer 10s to 12s, and the PJ is beautifully suited to drive a 10. You may prefer something else -- fine -- but something else is exactly that: something else, not a PJ. Jeff Beck liked the 10s well enough in his PJ.

 

[fasteddie42]

I've been wanting to upgrade my stock PJ3's cabinet for a while, I'm getting close to pulling the trigger.

I plan on going the same dimensions as my PRRI65 cabinet (the mojo tone slim deluxe style cab) and in the same brown western tolex.

I plan to keep it a 10" though.

the old cab will be re-purposed as my fender greta's extension cabinet

mhmmm... brown western tolex.

 

[Jsnwhite619]

I'll say that a Ragin Cajun isn't the only replacement speaker for them, but I've turned down several offers for mine in my pine cab and RC. One studio owner told me he had $1000 amps that didn't sound that good. Took a LONG break-in time, but it's a great speaker for it.

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[dreamingtele]

Thanks guys, although its just a 10, sitting in front of the amp, and my face in front of the speaker, I clearly heard what I wanted to sound like through an amp. My grail would be a 59 Bassman, but I dont have the means nor the use for such a big and loud amp for now.

I am just exploring on options on how to get the most possible volume/clean headroom as I can without modifying too much of the Pro Jr. I love the size, weight and everything about it. to my ears, it does sound better than the Blues Jr which I did heavily compare and spent almost 2 hours going back and forth in the shop.. ultimately my ears just seem to like the Pro Jr better.

Anyway, I will try and do stock for now, break the speakers in and see if I still want to modify the speakers into a Ragin Cajun or something else entirely.

 

[Jsnwhite619]

First move for Max clean is stick a 12ay7 in V1 slot. It will double the room on the dial you can turn it up and keep it clean. It isn't necessarily that much louder of a clean, but you aren't stuck nudging it with your finger to get THAT spot like with a 12ax7. If you like the amp, like the 10", and everything else but just want better clean tone, a 12ay7 will probably get you 90% of what you are looking for.

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[Jsnwhite619]

I've shared these before - I forgot about one of them with the Alessandro speaker - but there aren't a lot of user demo's that I see for amps and speaker combos on here, so here they are again.

For cabinet difference and 10" & 12" difference, etc., here are a couple samples. To the comment above that a 10" is integral to the the Pro Jr sound, I have to disagree. It sounds amazing with 12" speakers, definitely doesn't lose anything in the transition. Just more of it. The only reason that amp has a 10" speaker & small cab from the factory is because Fender needed an amp to fill the Champ slot in the lineup while not being a Champ. Small, compact, lightweight, undersized even, but not a Champ - but they still need to be able to charge 3x as much for a Champ RI as the Pro Jr. That's why it looks like a Champ and is small with a 10" speaker.

My Pro Jr with JJ's and 12AX7 in both preamp slots in a 16x20 pine cab I built and an Eminence Alessandro SC64 12" speaker.



Same amp, different cab but same size (I think it was the one in my avatar photo) with a Cannabis Rex and 12ay7 in V1 for most clean. I think I did the whole demo after the initial chord run-throughs at maybe 8 on the amp volume. It was loud, but that's how much cleaner the 12ay7 can be. The grittier parts were the same setting, just playing harder.